Michael Cohen's book to allege Trump made racist comments about Obama and Nelson Mandela, lawsuit sa

Michael Cohen’s book to allege Trump made racist comments about Obama and Nelson Mandela, lawsuit says

By Shayna Jacobs
7/21/2020, 2:11:56 a.m.

NEW YORK — The book manuscript being drafted by President Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen alleges that Trump has made racist comments about his predecessor Barack Obama and the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, according to court filings made public Monday night that contend Cohen was sent back to prison this month as retaliation.

The filings from Cohen’s attorneys seek his immediate release from federal custody following his rearrest July 9, less than two months after he was allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence on home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic. His lawsuit alleges that Cohen’s First Amendment rights were violated when he was detained at the federal courthouse in Manhattan during a meeting with probation officers, who had asked him to sign a gag order prohibiting him from speaking to the media or publishing a book while serving the rest of his sentence.

The book will contain “my firsthand experiences and observations based on my decade-long employment and relationship with Mr. Trump and his family, both before and after he was elected,” according to an affirmation from Cohen to the court. Its working title is “Disloyal: The True Story of Michael Cohen, Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump,” the documents say.

In particular, my book will provide graphic and unflattering details about the President’s behavior behind closed doors,” Cohen wrote. The memoir “describes the President’s pointedly anti-Semitic remarks and virulently racist remarks against such Black leaders as President Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela, neither of whom he viewed as real leaders or as worthy of respect by virtue of their race.”

The court documents offer no further details about the manuscript’s content. They were made public between 9:30 and 11 p.m. Monday.

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